Middle Smithfield supervisors consider ban of adult facilities

Monday

Mar 26, 2012 at 12:01 AM

Middle Smithfield Township supervisors are expected to adopt an ordinance Tuesday night blocking additional strip clubs in a commercial zone, as they consider rejecting next month a site plan for the only female nude dance club approved under the commercial zone provision.

DAVID PIERCE

Middle Smithfield Township supervisors are expected to adopt an ordinance Tuesday night blocking additional strip clubs in a commercial zone, as they consider rejecting next month a site plan for the only female nude dance club approved under the commercial zone provision.

A public hearing on the ordinance — which would rescind the zoning amendment that led to last August's controversial approval of a strip club on the Werry's Motel property owned by then-Supervisor Bob Spano Sr. — is scheduled for 7 p.m. Supervisors could take action later that night to approve the change, which would restrict future adult facilities to the township's industrial zone.

Spano and former Supervisor Scott Schaller provided the 2-1 margin in 2010 to overhaul the zoning ordinance, including expanding possible adult uses to the Route 209 commercial zone. Spano then joined Schaller last August in approving the HOTTPA application for a strip club on Spano's Werry's property.

Spano was charged two days later with violating the state Ethics Act by voting for something that was of a personal financial benefit. Spano contends the act allows supervisors to vote to break ties, after acknowledging the conflict of interest.

That case is still pending, as is a civil suit filed by 15 Middle Smithfield Township residents seeking to overturn last August's approval on several grounds.

The residents contend the approval is invalid because the former supervisors failed to issue a written decision after the vote. They also maintain the decision is invalid because Spano and a HOTTPA official defied the residents' subpoena to testify at the township condition use hearing, HOTTPA wasn't a legally constituted corporation when the approval was sought and the facility is within 1,000 feet of a park approved last year.

Any supervisor vote Tuesday preventing future placement of adult facilities in a commercial zone would have no immediate impact on the HOTTPA facility.

Supervisors are charged with establishing site plan conditions for the Werry's club based on last year's conditional use approval — things like lighting, parking, hours of operation, and building configuration. They are expected to take action April 3 on the site plan.

The Middle Smithfield Township Planning Commission on March 15 recommended rejection of the site plan due to an absence of details of how the site would look once the strip club is in operation. HOTTPA has indicated it may ask Monroe County Court to overturn the township's conditions.

Supervisors have another public hearing Tuesday on a topic that will likely spark controversy. Pyramid Healthcare proposes buying the Hillside Inn off Frutchey Road and converting it to a 60-bed drug and alcohol treatment facility that might eventually be expanded to 110 beds.